Bernard Madoff’s Sentencing Date To Be Continued?

“I’ve taken a good hard look at the case, and based on all the events that need to transpire before June 16^th, I find it hard to believe the 16^th is going to be Bernie’s judgment day,” said Wall Street Prison Consultants founder Larry Levine. “If I had to guess, the sentencing’s going to be continued…probably several times.”

Pursuant to Federal Court Rules, once Judge Chin accepted Madoff’s guilty plea he ordered a PSI (probation sentencing investigation) to be done by the U.S. Probation Office Pre Trial Services, and then found an available date June 16^th on his calendar and set a sentencing date.

 “It all sounds pretty basic, but this is where it gets kind of tricky,” Levine said. “In Federal criminal sentence proceedings, there’s normally 3 different independent sentencing opinions being presented to the Court: the U.S. Probation Offices’, the Defendant’s, and the Prosecutors (U.S. Attorney); and many times these opinions can be worlds apart.”

In the normal chain of events, a defendant and his lawyer meet with a probation officer (P.O.) for the PSI and the following transpires.

The defendant outlines his personal, family, educational, financial, employment and medical history. This is all entered into confidential court records along with information on the crime utilizing law enforcement reports supplied by the prosecution. Using the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the P.O. acting as a representative of the Judicial Branch breaks down the defendant’s actions by offense characteristics, severity, dollar loss and past criminal history, and a PSR (Probation Sentencing Report) is created.

U.S. Probation Pre Trial Services through the PSR then issues its sentencing recommendation.

The defendant’s lawyer, and the Prosecutor, then have the opportunity to dispute the PSR, and issue objections asking the court to strike things from the PSR, or usually in the Prosecutor’s case, add additional sentencing penalties.

This all takes a lot of time, and in Madoff’s case, due to the complexity of the unknown dollar loss which will have the biggest impact on the sentencing guidelines, it could take months. And even after the judge issues a final version of the PSR, it’s not over yet.

Madoff 's lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, then has the opportunity to file a sentencing memorandum outlining Madoff’s position to the court. He’ll leave out all the bad stuff about Bernie and talk about all the good deeds Madoff did in his life, along with letters of support from people in the community (if he could find any) and try to make Bernie look like a saint. And for good measure he’ll bring up Bernie’s health issues and probably ask for the unlikely sentence of probation

The Prosecutor will then have time (usually 30 days) to rebut what Sorkin’s memorandum asked for, and file a response memorandum outlining the Government’s position and why Sorkin’s position is all wrong, and tell why Bernie should be locked up long enough for his great-grand-children to eligible for Social Security!

Finally, since Bernie is the defendant, he gets the last word! And gets to explain to the court why the Government’s position is defective and how he should get the sentence he originally asked for.

These documents can sometimes to several inches thick, and the judge and his clerks have to read them.

So if you still think Madoff's going to be sentenced on June 16th, don't hold your breath!